‘SA20 Will Make Local Players Understand What Sort of Level is Required to Play at Big Stage’: Pretoria Capitals Skipper Wayne Parnell

Pretoria Capitals skipper Wayne Parnell has rolled up his sleeves for their first game against Sunrisers Eastern Cape in the inaugural SA20 on Thursday (January 12). The Pretoria Capitals have picked up a great bowling unit with the likes of Anrich Nortje and Adil Rashid. With the first match just around the corner, Parnell spoke to CricketNext and opened up about his team’s strengths and the advantage of having a great bowling unit.

“I think in T20 Cricket, there is a lot of importance of having a really strong bowling unit. You know, that’s probably one aspect of T20 cricket. If you want to be successful, I think that’s one part that you have to get right. We have a very well-rounded team, so obviously having two experienced guys (Anrich Nortje and Adil Rashid) helps a lot, but I think we have to call on all 11 parties to put their hands up at various stages throughout the competition,” said Parnell.

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The South African all-rounder has been a significant part of various league-based tournaments across the world. He made his debut in Indian Premier league (IPL) in 2010 for Delhi Daredevils (now Delhi Capitals) but did not get a chance to play a match. Further, he played for Pune Warriors from 2011 to 2013 and had a decent run in the tournament. In 2016, he also featured in Caribbean Premier League (CPL) wherein he played for Barbados Tridents. Parnell now believes to pick bits from all the experiences in hand from various leagues and then build their own identity in SA20.

“I have been fortunate enough to play all different types of tournaments over the course of my career. So just trying to pick little bits from every single league and also we have great foreigners as well, so just trying to pick their brains as well.

We have a couple of T20 World Cup winners in our squads, so just obviously trying to find out certain things that they did in their kind of set-up that helped them and then trying to implement one or two of those things to have our own identity and play our own brand of cricket,” he said.

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Parnell further stated the importance of SA20 for the local players in South Africa and said that the league will help players in understanding the level of skill required to play at league and international levels.

“As a leadership group, we don’t want to tell people on how to go about their business. So, I think from that point of view, this competition is and especially for the local players, it’s just going to be of a very high standard. I think it will probably surprise a lot of local guys, but it will also make people understand what sort of level is required to play, firstly at this level and then also around the world in the different T20 leagues,” he added.

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